RBR Team Maroon Places Second in the Nation at CyberPatriot IX

RBR Team Maroon Places Second in the Nation at CyberPatriot IX

RBR Team Maroon Bested Over 2200 High Schools

On Thursday, April 6, the
students of Red Bank Regional High School (RBR) emptied their classrooms and
lined the school’s corridors to welcome home their victorious classmates. The Little Silver Fire and Police Departments
provided a heroes’ escort as Team Maroon exited the van to the cheers and high
fives of their school community. After seven
months of grueling competitions, starting in a field of over 2,200 high
schools, Team Maroon advanced round after round to achieve their victory.

In
mid-January the team earned their first trophy with the NJ State Champion title
(RBR’s teams Gray and White took second and third places, respectively). With the competition whittled down to the top
300 teams for the Regional Event, Team Maroon not only took the Northeast
Regional title but also earned their spot in the elite top 12 Finals team. At this point they knuckled down for 8 weeks
of intense day, night and weekend practice to prepare for the ultimate test of
their skills. Their efforts culminated when Team Maroon took the second highest
honor in the country at the three-day CyberPatriot National Competition in
Baltimore, Maryland sponsored by the Air Force Association. They are proud to
be in the company of First Place winner North Hollywood High School, California
and Third Place winner Poolsville High School, Maryland.

Team Maroon --composed of seniors Bobby
Villaluz, Shrewsbury, Kyle Neary, Shrewsbury, Young Chen, Belmar, and juniors
Jack Ferrone, Shrewsbury, Andrew Costa, Shrewsbury and Woody Quinn, Little
Silver -- were ebullient and a little surprised to be greeted with such
fanfare. After all they were not a football team returning from the state
championship. They were RBR Academy of Information Technology students; their
equipment,--computers, and hard-learned technology skills used to harden their computer
and network defenses against an assault that included backdoors, malware, and
whatever else malevolent hackers can dream-up.

Woody Quinn commented on his team’s warm
homecoming, “It was really exciting. I didn’t expect that many to support us,
but it was great having the whole school supporting the team.”

Bobby Villaluz added, “Just that moment walking
through the hallways, and having all our classmates supporting us and cheering
us made all those hours we spent worth it!”

On those many hours, their coach and
Academy of Information Technology teacher (AOIT) teacher Mandy Galante
commented, “They put in hundreds of hours of practice working together and at
home. To make sure they could fit in a weekend practice, they volunteered to
start at 7:30 on Saturdays to work around the jobs that many hold. They are
incredibly focused kids; a synonym for commitment is RBR Team Maroon.”

Though Mandy Galante admits the RBR
cyber security program gives the students a great foundation, she saw Team
Maroon take the initiative beyond their coaches’ help to train themselves so their
skills reached new levels through each round of the competitions.

Co-captains Kyle Neary and Bobby Villaluz
are three-year veterans of the competitions, as RBR made it to the top 12 final
spots for the past two years (at CyberPatriot VII& VIII) but didn’t place. Building on that history, the team’s hunger
for a win is further fueled by RBR’s previous First Place win at CyberPatriot
III in 2011. That was the first year the competition was open to public high
schools and only 300 high schools participated.

“With the program growing
exponentially, at this point CyberPatriot is an incredibly elite level of
competition” Mandy Galante adds. Kyle Neary agrees stating, “It was the most
stressful it has ever been. They just kept on throwing a bunch of different
things at us that we had to figure out.”

During the competition, all 12 teams
were sequestered in cubicles with their computers and their assignments. The core NetSec event has the team spend 3 ½
hours defending multiple Linux and Windows servers while under active hacking
attack by an in-person Red Team. Just as
they resolved one issue, as Kyle describes, another one was thrown in their
wake. The students needed to work
together as a team to critically address the problems at a frenetic pace. Coaches were not allowed in the competition
space and could only stare at the scoreboard which showed scores, but no team
names. One thing was clear to the tense
spectators - only fractions of points separated the first, second and third
place teams.

According to AOIT Teacher and Coach
Jeremy Milonas the team never lost confidence adding, “After talking to them on
how they feel the competition went and what they did, I had no doubt they were
going to end up with one of the top spots.”

Andrew Costa adds, “We were very
confident until the (awards) dinner; there was a lot of adrenaline at that
dinner.”

Senior Young Chen states of the CyberPatriot
experience, “The important thing is that we did everything together as one team, as one family,
and that trumps everything.”

The RBR AOIT Cybersecurity curriculum was
developed in 2008 by Mandy Galante. It
encompasses a four-year instructional-track in computer hardware, networking, security
and digital forensics, with a concentration on active labs with real equipment.
This unique curriculum coordinates with an advanced four-year Computer Science
program to build a solid foundation in cyber security. The purpose of this
track is to spark student interest in a crucial career path which protects
American government and corporate assets against cyber-attacks.

Mrs. Galante adds, “Never underestimate the
power of competition and a shiny trophy to motivate hard work. CyberPatriot has
all the positive qualities of being on a sports team - common interest, working
together to improve skills, camaraderie and the adrenaline rush of scoring
points. But CyberPatriot has the added
bonus of developing talents that are in high demand and lead to exciting
challenging careers.”

The program has had a very positive
affect on Team Maroon’s members. Bobby
Villaluz will attend Cornell University in the fall where he will study
Computer Science. Kyle Nearly will study
computer security at Drexel University and Young Chen will attend Champlain
College where he intends to study for a career as a forensic digital analyst. Andrew Costa and Woody Quinn are similarly
considering studying computer science/cybersecurity in college.

The competition had a profound
impact on Jack Ferrone. He stated, “Based on what we saw at the (Northrup
Grumman tour) military base, it really inspired me. I want to join the military now.”

Jeremy Milonas adds, “This program
is huge for these kids’ future. It prepares them with real life skills as
professionals in an industry that is so important to our country’s future with
the need to protect our infrastructure and all our personal identifiable
information. This was one of the goals
of this program.”

With the great increase of
participants and complexity of the competition, the Air Force Association, the founders
of the CyberPatriot competitions, appears to be realizing their goal of
inspiring more American high school students to undertake this important course
of study.